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4 Ways Tuition Is Done Differently at The Physics Cafe

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For secondary school and JC students, mugging the examination syllabus can sometimes feel like an uphill battle; it may be tough, but it’s definitely not impossible. Subjects like Physics and Mathematics tend to get super convoluted and classroom lessons can only do so much to help students make it less so.

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That’s where a premium tuition centre like The Physics Cafe comes in. Not your run-of-the-mill centre, it’s got a yearly enrolment of 1,000 students, plenty of student services and a unique learning approach that’s helped at least 8 out 10 of their students achieve their ‘A’ grades. Here’s how they do it:

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Here’s how they do it:

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1. Lessons are dynamic and you can watch them online like a uni student

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We’ve all experienced the occasional “which page is the teacher on?” moment during school time. At The Physics Cafe, you’ll find that this never happens as the lessons are engaging throughout – student participation plays a big part here.

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Better yet, all of the lessons are recorded and made available online via a digital library for students’ personal revision. Students can easily book the digital lesson that they want to watch through the website, in preparation before major exams.

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The catalogue in their digital library is extensive – you can access all of the lessons that you’ve been through, for revision.

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The best part about this “digital cafe” is that the lessons are open to non-students too. You’ll have to come down to the tuition centre’s study area to stream the lessons, but for only half the price of a live lesson and complimentary access to the cafe’s pantry, it’s well worth the trip.

2. To be a tutor here, you need to go through a Ninja Warrior-like process

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The Physics Cafe tutors are endearingly termed “chefs” but they may as well be regarded as Masterchefs of Physics. For every 30 to 40 applicants interviewed, only one is hired. And the process doesn’t just stop there – even if they’re experienced, they’ll have to go through a year’s worth of training conducting mock lessons before officially teaching a class.

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The centre’s founder Mr. Dave Sim can attest to this rigorous process – having taught at Raffles Junior College (now Raffles Institution) for six years, he understands the importance of being committed to his students and making Physics as accessible as possible. A quick look through their whopping list of testimonials – categorised by school – will show the tutors’ impact on their students.

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Mr. Dave Sim and his fellow tutors maintain a close relationship with their students, beyond the classroom.

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Don’t expect a spammage of notes or photocopies of Popular-bought assessment books here either – like an actual school syllabus, the tutors spend time putting together booklets of notes that are easier to understand than school textbooks. They’re highly sought after by non-students too!

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Top-secret notes!

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3. Lessons are not a repetition of what you’ve learnt in school

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If you’re hesitant about tuition classes, it’s probably because you’re worried about spending an extra 2 hours of school, after school. But at The Physics Cafe, you won’t learn the same thing twice.

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“Simple harmonic motion” may not sound so simple during an 8am lecture, but when you sit in here, you’ll get it so much quicker. Lessons – often 2 hours – consist of two concise parts: understanding concepts, where concepts are broken down and explained, and problem-solving, where you get to apply the concept on real problems.

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Bonus: If that still doesn’t help, sometime the tutors will carry out live demonstrations!

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Their June holiday crash courses are popular among students for being major confidence boosters. These super comprehensive 4-hour lessons – with pizza breaks in between! – recap only the things that you need to know before a major exam. No longer will you have to rely on luck by spotting questions and learning more than you actually have to.

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Pizza during breaks? Yes, please!

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4. The tuition centre is a legit cafe that provides free food AND free travel

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The pantry is constantly stocked. There’s even a free-flow vending machine!

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The name “The Physics Cafe” isn’t a marketing gimmick. It’s really akin to a hipster cafe – with a foosball table and a free-for-all pantry that rivals even that of TSL’s. If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s a tuition centre, we could have featured it in this month’s listicle of new cafes to try.

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Students can indicate on the map the destination they wish to go to

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And the perks don’t just end at F&B – the cafe provides free shuttle rides to Botanic Gardens, Jurong East, Serangoon and Paya Lebar MRT. And if you’re one of those staying back late for revision, they’ll even book a Grab or Uber ride to send you home – free of charge!

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The Physics Cafe – A different kind of tuition centre

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Most people brag about results, but only the students here get to brag about results and how cool their tuition centre is. With ergonomic chairs for every student, high-tech equipment and a space that’s half the size of a football field, tuition here definitely feels like less of a bore.

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And the results speak for themselves too with the​ centre’s impressive track record​:

In 2016, at least 80% of their students scored A in Physics and/or Maths in the ‘A’ level examinations, double that of the national average

9 out of 10 of their students scored a distinction in the Physics and/or Maths in the O-level exam

Check out this list of students who scored distinctions. You may even recognise some of your seniors!

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The Physics Cafe is already one of the most established tuition centres around – with over 1000 yearly student enrolment – and in the coming year, more students will be able to benefit from their lessons. In addition to their Toa Payoh and Beauty World branches, two new centres are expected to be opened in Novena and Marine Parade in early 2018.

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Spots are high in demand so registration is online-only.

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Bonus: Look out for their ambassador programme, officially launching in late 2017. It’s an initiative that provides students with partial and full scholarship to attend their tuition classes!

What comes to mind when people mention The Physics Cafe? Effective? Helpful? Perhaps reliable may even be considered to be an understatement. For years we have grown in size and in strength to become a premium tuition centre in Singapore, specialising in Physics and Maths education for Secondary and JC students. Below are 10 facts and achievements that we have accumulated over the years, we hope you have a good read!

1. Only 1 tutor is shortlisted out of 30 interviewed.

Each tutor is paid on average $350 per hour. That’s up to 3 times the pay of the average tutor in Singapore. What’s more, our tutors undergo months of training before they are allowed to lead classes, so you can be assured that our tutors are top-notch and top-quality 🙂

2. Our branch near Beauty World MRT is the 2nd branch open to the public.

As of May 2017, our new branch is opening at the penthouse level of Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. Good news for the westies!

3. Our main school next to Toa Payoh MRT is half a football field big, with our very own:

(1) lecture theatre,

(2) in-house cafe, and

(3) shuttle bus service

4. We hire ex students as student councillors to assist in students matter.

If you are keen on joining us, you’re welcome to drop us an email 🙂

5. Registration for our classes are done strictly online.

This is to facilitate the registration process, and to make it more convenient for you.

6. Our Founder Principal Tutor, Mr Dave Sim, is the renowned physics super tutor in Singapore, with a teaching experience of 6 years at RI.

We’ll let Mr Sim speak for himself here:

“I am the director and the head of academic. This switch (from RI to The Physics Cafe) means I can control exactly what and how you learn. I can test you my way. I can then let the results speak for themselves. It does not matter who you are or where you are from. I know that if I cannot help you, no one can. But of course, it’s up to you to prove me wrong. Try to get a “C” or a “D” for your final paper!”

7. 70% of our students are from IP schools

Some of you may wonder if our lessons are suitable for students from the IP stream. Fear not! Our lessons here are catered to both IP and non-IP students as the syllabus is the same. In fact, we have a good mix of students from both IP and non-IP streams and no one gets left behind.

8. At least 80% of our students scored A in Physics and/or Maths in the A levels – doubling the national average!!!

We are very very proud of our students who have done well in the A levels and would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the graduated batch of 2016. You have worked hard and gotten the grades you truly deserved. Good Job! Do visit our hall of fame to find out more.

9. 9 out of 10 students scored a distinction in the Physics and/or Maths in the O-level exam

Need we say more?

10. We have a 1000 student yearly enrollment!

Most of our students here are recommended by friends/family and we are very heartened by the support shown to us over the years. Read the reviews given to us by our ex-students and parents here.

Expect nothing less than focused and effective lessons when you attend the highly sought-after secondary and JC physics and mathematics lessons at The Physics Cafe.

Founder Dave Sim, 37, taught physics at one of Singapore’s top junior colleges for six years before setting up the learning centre in 2010. Mr Sim is now so sought after that the physics classes he teaches have a total enrolment of about 500 students spread out across eight classes this year. The learning centre specializes in Physics and Mathematics in the newly expanded premise next to Toa Payoh MRT. It has its own café, library and even shuttle buses to ferry students home.

Offering high-quality lessons consistently over the years has earned Mr Sim great popularity and countless positive reviews. The Physics Café website and facebook page have a total of more than 500 testimonials from students and ex-students who benefited from his guidance. Those on the webpage are categorised by schools the students come from.

Miss Pang Shi Hui, 18, who will be taking her A-level examinations this year said: “I remember being blown away after my first lesson at The Physics Cafe. Mr Sim answered every possible lingering question we might have. From then on, I started gaining confidence and interest in the subject.”

Igniting students’ love for physics

She recalled the anxiety of needing to improve her grades after scoring around 35 out of 100 marks for her physics test papers six months before her GCE A-level examinations. Two years ago, undergraduate Kelly Chong, 20, went from failing the subject to scoring an A for her GCE A levels in 2014.

She was then a second-year junior college student struggling in physics until a schoolmate recommended The Physics Cafe’s June holiday crash course.

Miss Chong continued attending the lessons after the crash course ended. Six months later, she went from failing the subject to scoring an A for her GCE A levels in 2014.

Now pursuing National University of Singapore’s double degree programme in accountancy and communications, she credits The Physics Cafe’s teaching methodologies that honed her ability to grasp physics concepts better and tackle questions with greater confidence.

Miss Chong said: “Mr Sim’s lessons saved me a lot of time as I could understand the subject more quickly compared to self-study without tuition. His notes and mindmaps were well-designed and aided my understanding of principles.

“Frequent timed practices that mimicked examination conditions trained me to work swiftly and accurately when answering questions. I discovered my weaknesses and learnt better when Mr Sim explained the solutions.”

On top of the game

Mr Sim said that he has come across parents questioning why students attend tuition even if they are doing well academically.

He explained that this current trend may differ from that in the past when most students who attend tuition are struggling in the subject. These days, students who may not be academically weak attend tuition classes not to pass examinations, but to save time as learning can be more effective under the guidance of a good tutor.

Mr Sim said: “Students attending tuition lessons in today’s context have a certain attitude in life that brings them to where they are today. They constantly seek to better themselves and this is the attitude that motivates them to attend tuition classes. Tuition will not replace school lessons, but ensures every minute spent on learning is effective and targeted compared to self-study.

“Tuition is not for students to pass examinations, but to get excellent grades in a more effective way. Without tuition, they may achieve an A too on their own, but perhaps with more effort and time.”

On The Golden Girls, there’s a scene where a teacher speaks fondly about her favourite student: “He gets this look in his eyes when he’s listening. You don’t see that very often. I think that look is the whole reason that teachers teach.”

Dave Sim is familiar with that look.

Having taught physics at RJC (now known as RI) for six years, he knows how life defining a career in education can be. For every teacher committed in their craft, nothing beats the triumph of knowing they’ve made an impact on a student’s life.

Dave is a legendary figure in his students’ eyes. Thanks to his engaging and concise techniques on the perplexing subject, many of his students evolve from being a mediocre Physics student to an exceptional one.

An Education Emporium

Dave is also unlike any other teacher.

For one thing, he wears a mic headphone while teaching. For another, he runs The Physics Cafe, a massive tuition centre where he serves as the director and head of academic.

Not only is his education centre half the size of a football field, but it also has its own cafe, digital library, scholarship programme, and shuttle bus service. The Physics Cafe is dubbed as a premium school — one look at the tutors’ tailor-made uniforms reflect that.

When Dave launched The Physics Cafe, he started small by enrolling only JC students. A big group of these students came from well-known schools like Hwa Chong Junior College and Anglo Chinese Junior College. At that time, there were about 200 of them.

Three years later, he decided to take the plunge by offering physics and maths tuition to both JC and secondary school students.

Dave shares he was mulling over opening the classes earlier, but he chose not to in the end. He had high standards and was determined to stand by it. Plus, he didn’t think the early launch would justify the amount of work he had put in.

The amount of work for the launch was colossal.

Dave and his team spent not a week, not a month, but a year to put together their lesson materials. Fortunately, their Herculean task paid off. Right now, The Physics Cafe has close to a thousand students.

Judging by the statistics alone, it’s clear having tuition as a kid is a norm in today’s world; yet for Dave’s schooling years, it was the exact opposite.

Never had tuition as a kid

Growing up, Dave was a studious kid. He had the habit of writing down his own set of notes, a practice that reaped the benefit in his career as an educator. “When I first started teaching, I was surprised how my ten-year-old JC notes helped my students understand the key concepts in physics,” he says.

A visual learner, Dave shares he finds it easier to study his own notes with his handwriting than pouring through his lecturer’s typewritten ones.

“I don’t like memorising individual equations and definitions. Instead, I remember the visual image of every page of my notes.”

Since he couldn’t afford tuition, Dave consistently kept his nose to the grindstone. He reminisces his life as a student and how he’d used to spend hours solving just one question.

Nevertheless, Dave’s school life wasn’t too shabby; with determination and hard work, he managed to sail through his exams.

“Now I’m happy to help my students to save [the] time, leaving [them] more time for other things.”

Making tutoring easier for his students

Not only did his techniques got his students out of a tight spot, but The Physics Cafe’s ambassador programme — an initiative that covers partial and full scholarship — has also lightened their load.

How does one qualify for the role of an honourable ambassador?

“The ambassador of the school should be a role model for these students. He or she will be responsible for collating the exam results from the students so that we can see how the student fare relatively, compared to their peers,” Dave shares.

Expanding the tuition centre was also a natural decision. The number of students were growing and the space couldn’t accommodate their needs. Currently, the school is nestled in Toa Payoh.

On top of that, The Physics Cafe is also taking a beat from MOOCs by offering video lessons for students who are unable to afford the tuition fees.

With this approach, students pay half the usual fee to attend the same lesson, with the same tutor, and the same materials in the comfort of The Physics Cafe’s very own digital library.

Different expectations

Dave also shares several insights about today’s tuition market. “We have to accept that the trend today is very different. Students who go for tuition are not weak academically or ‘kiasu’ in nature,” he adds.

“Most students in Singapore attend tuition classes to “stretch time”, so learning will be more effective.”